Fuck me.

Can't I catch a break around here?

I just left these hobgoblins and now they're back with a vengeance.

Ava glanced past the three Tarasks toward Cat's Cradle, weighing her options. She couldn't run for help, couldn't draw them toward her Sisters. It would be a massacre. And she still didn't have her damn sword.

She was weaponless—no, she had the full power of the halo, but what she could do was still limited. She could fly, she could attempt to blast them, or she could run because she can't dissolve through their divinium skeletons.

"Fuck," Ava muttered, taking a step back.

She wouldn't head towards Cat's Cradle. So that left her with only one other option: run.

Ava hurtled up the hill using the speed of the halo to get a little bit of a head start over the lumbering beasts on her tail. She went right through trees instead of bothering to dodge them because even a slight deterrence from her path would lose valuable distance.

Even though I'm running for my fucking life, damn does it feel good to use the halo again. To be on Earth and feel the ground under my boots.

If I weren't trying to escape three Tarasks, this would probably be a good time to look out over the landscape and soak in the view.

Ava's foot slipped on loose rock, nearly sending her over the edge of the cliff.

Shit.

A Tarask materialized in front of her, and Ava barely had the reflexes to dodge the hand as it reached toward her.

She kept running, lungs now on fire.

She had no plan and she couldn't keep running forever. She may be superhuman, but she still had a limit on her power supply, and an even shorter one on her legs. Right now, working legs were the only thing keeping her alive.

Ava pulled back on the reigns of the halo to conserve energy. She needed the halo's power to stave off paralysis more than she needed to use it. Not that not using it really mattered because the halo was always on. It worked 24/7 to keep her alive and ambulatory, which left Ave at a disadvantage in situations like this.

Shit.

She pumped her arms harder.

God, when did their tether to this realm run out? It had to be soon.

As if to answer her question, three more Tarasks materialized in a half-moon around Ava. She swore, skidding to a stop. Behind her, the Tarasks previously following had disappeared.

Now she just had to outlast these Tarask's tethers. Ava groaned. She couldn't keep this up forever. She'd tire eventually and then Reya would get her way—kill her or drag her back into the Other World.

"Shit!" Ava dove to the side as the middle Tarask sliced an arm toward her head. She found her feet quickly and popped back up, but the far right Tarask's hand wrapped around her throat.

Before it could lift her too far off the ground, Ava pulsed the halo which sent both her and it flying back. She crashed into hard dirt and stones and all air in her lungs evaporated. She tried several times to inhale, but she couldn't make her lungs take in air, so Ava attempted to get to her feet as she wheezed.

Already she could feel the halo waning.

One pulse had drained almost all its power reserves.

"Shit," Ava hissed. "Fuck. Damn it," she growled as she curled in on herself.

She couldn't care less about her language at the moment. She figured God would understand she was a little stressed and wouldn't hold it against her. She did a quick cross across her chest just to be safe and muttered, "Sorry."

Then Ava straightened up. "I hope you three aren't here to kill me. That would really sour the mood."

They didn't need to kill her, though. They just needed to wait until the halo ran out of power. Ava hung her head. That's exactly what they were doing, she realized. The one Tarask had just taken her by the throat and held her. She had been the one to blast out of its grasp. If they had been ordered to kill her, they wouldn't have bothered with containment.

All three Tarasks moved as one.

Ava dodged and countered their attacks, but with three against one and the strain of her impending paralysis tugging on her spine, there was only so much she could do.

The Tarask to her far left managed to catch Ava's wrist in its massive hand, and then the one on the right mirrored, taking her other arm in its grasp.

She couldn't phase out of it, but she wouldn't be taken, either.

Ava yelled as her power surged and she blasted all three Tarasks back, taking bits of the rocky cliff with it—along with the feeling in her legs and most of her upper body.

She collapsed to the ground, unable to move any muscles in her legs. Ava grunted in an attempt to claw her way across the dirt, but intermittent numbness in her fingers made gripping difficult.

"Shit," she breathed, resting her forehead on her hands.

That was dumb.

Ava pounded a fist against the ground, dust wafting. "Shit!"

She missed her Sisters. She missed Camila and Beatrice. She missed having people she could count on at her back. It had only been several hours for her, but it felt like a lifetime of fighting alone.

And now there was nothing she could do to stop the new wave of Tarasks. Ava glanced up into the bright, pale sun. No, Tarask, she corrected as a singular one of Reya's gatekeepers appeared before her.

The deity must have known she wouldn't be a problem anymore and kept the rest of her army back.

Ava urged the halo to replenish faster, but she knew it wouldn't for several hours. She silently yelled at it anyway. She glanced behind her down the mountain at Cat's Cradle in the distance.

I'm here! I'm home, Mother.

Ava closed her eyes, the vibrations of the Tarask's footsteps shaking her core as it neared.

I made it back. I'm not dead.

A hot tear rolled down her cheek, but Ava swallowed the rest of the emotion. She fumbled with the clasp of her necklace, and with a grunt, managed to drop the jewelry into the sun-baked dirt just as the Tarask wrapped a hand around Ava's arm.

I was here. Find me.

The dissipation of dimensions collapsed inward, breaking Ava into millions of pieces as Reya's realm called her back and darkness morphed into oblivion.

...

Camila held onto the van's door handle with a white-knuckled grip as Yasmine flew around a corner of the highway. "Why did I suggest you drive again?" she yelled over the wind and music blasting through the vehicle.

"I don't know!" Yasmine called back, thankfully not taking her eyes from the road before them. "I'm a terrible driver."

"You're a terrible driver," Camila echoed and braced herself for another jerky turn. "We're not being chased, Yasmine. Please be more careful!"

"Yes, but we're wasting time!"

"We're just passing Burgos," Camilla said, "and we won't be getting out of here any faster, especially if you crash and kill us both."

Yasmine took one hand off the wheel to motion at the traffic ahead and Camila lunged for it to swerve them out of the way of the opposite lane. She yelped and threw her hand back on the wheel. "I've gotten us almost seven hours into this journey, so I'd say I'm not doing terribly."

Camila looked sidelong at her. "We're lucky we haven't seen any police vehicles today or else we'd really be in trouble."

"Oh, no," Yasmine said, eyes wide, "I can't get arrested. I've never been arrested before."

"Then take the pedal off the metal!" Camila screeched as Yasmine hurtled past a rusted teal Volks Wagen.

The velocity of the van drastically decreased, which would have thrown Camila against the dash if she hadn't been wearing a seatbelt.

"Sorry," Yasmine breathed. "Sorry."

Both of Camila's hands were steely as she gripped the door handle and the head of Yasmine's seat. She glanced sidelong at her Sister and muttered, "Getting into a car crash is not how I planned on meeting the Maker."

Yasmine shrugged and gave a timid smile. "Ah, yes, but we didn't crash and you didn't die."

Camila rolled her eyes. "Todavía hay tiempo para que uno de nosotros muera."

Yasmine gasped. "Camila!"

"Yasmine!" Camila shouted back. "It won't be me if you kill us first!"

"But I'm driving slowly now," Yasmine whined, gesturing to the road ahead.

"Yes, after you almost killed us."

The Sister rocked her head back and forth, most likely attempting to summon another excuse. Instead, she muttered, "I'm sorry/"

"Are you?"

"Yes! I am sorry, Camila." Both girls took a breath and then Yasmine whispered, "I just want to find Ava, and I'm anxious driving on highways, and unfortunately the combination of the two don't mix very well."

Now that they were traveling at a reasonable speed, Camila could sit back and almost relax. She took a deep breath before she said, "I apologize. I didn't mean to yell. While you do need to be careful driving, I understand why you're fidgety." She glanced at Yasmine whose thumb tapped against the steering wheel. "I want to find Ava, too. It's all I've wanted to do for the past seven months. Now that we may finally have a lead—" She sighed. "I wish I could teleport."

"We didn't we fly?"

Camila opened her mouth. Then she shut it. "I—didn't think of that. Anonymity, I guess?" She shrugged and pointed to the nearest exit sign. "We'll refuel in Burgos and then I'll drive for the rest of the day. We'll stop in Toulouse for the night and then continue on to Turin in the morning."

After Yasmine got them sort of safely off the highway and into Burgos, they got gas, some much needed dinner, and then Camila took her turn as driver.

The rest of the ride that evening was quiet. Yasmine even slept for an hour or two. Camila would never dream of doing that with Yasmine driving. All these months she had been training her as a Sister Warrior when perhaps she should have been giving her driving lessons.

Not that it mattered anymore. All that mattered was getting Ava back.

Camila navigated down the narrow cobblestone streets of Toulouse in the late hours of the night. Thankfully, they just had to find an empty place to park since they could sleep in the van.

Camila rubbed a hand on Yasmine's shoulder. "Yas," she whispered. "We've reached Toulouse."

Yasmine mumbled something inaudible but opened an eye. She sat up as they passed a pub near the center of the city.

Music played, people danced, and laughter filled the night.

"Where will we stay for the night?"

Camila nodded a little farther down the road. "I think I see some space near that bridge overlooking the River Garonne. We'll park there."

As they passed the pub, a silhouette stumbled into the center of the road, their back to the two girls.

Yasmine hit Camila's shoulder. "Watch out!"

Thankfully, they weren't travelling that fast, so they were able to stop when Camila slammed on the breaks. Unfortunately, a heavy thud sounded as the bumper made contact with the pedestrian.

"Lord Almighty," Camila gasped, unbuckling and flinging the driver's door open. "Yasmine!" she hissed softly, "I just hit someone!"

Yasmine winced as she also came to the front of the van. "Did you kill them? Oh, please don't say you killed them."

Camila bent down over the figure to feel for a pulse and check for injuries. It appeared to be a woman in dark green trousers and a black leather jacket. They had on a gray cap, so she couldn't see their face. Camila lifted the cap's rim and recoiled. "Dios mío."

Yasmine gaped.

Camila looked up, eyes wide. "I almost killed Beatrice."